John Dickerson pens a ridiculous piece for Slate accusing Rudy Giuliani of being too nice and insufficiently partisan to get the GOP nomination in 2008 based on a recent campaign appearance for Michael Steele. I think Dickerson is trying to create some sort of wedge here between Giuliani and the Bush Administration's current media offensive on the War on Terror, but among other things he misses the crucial point here: this was a campaign stop for Steele, who is running in a heavily Democratic state, needs to reach out to black voters who are traditional Democrats, and - importantly - doesn't have an opponent yet and is thus working the high road for the moment.

Anyway, whatever else you might say, Rudy has never before been accused of being insufficiently combative.